This invention is concerned with the measurement of blood pressure (BP), and more particularly with non-occlusive, passive blood pressure measurements, using a sensor of heartbeat pulses at a single site, and with a resolution sufficient to resolve Pulsus Paradoxus (PP).
Previous attempts to measure blood pressure with resolution sufficient to resolve small changes in BP associated with PP have relied on pulse propagation delay times between brachial and radial artery sites, for example. In general, such two-site approaches have only been able to track substantial changes in BP using pulse transit time (PTT) but have failed to reliably resolve the small changes in BP associated with PP.
Two-site measurement approaches have been especially deficient in the measurement of systolic variations, because the heartbeat pressure pulse changes in shape and amplitude as it heads toward the arterial periphery. These changes are due to a number of factors, including changes in the arterial wall material composition that affect the wall's elastic behavior, the taper of the main arterial branch, the distribution of branch lines, and pulse reflections. The result is that the pulse steepens and contracts as it propagates, as linear pulse propagation models predict. Additionally, non-linear effects in the arterial tree can produce pulse steepening. More importantly, the non-linear elastic response of the arterial wall results in a distinctly non-linear relationship of pulse propagation velocity and pressure.